DECEMBER 2005 • JANUARY 2006 word of mouth general fiction 32 goodreading ı Buy your next good read online at www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au DIRECT The Grasshopper Shoe Carolyn Leach-Paholski In late nine- teenth-century China, Hsiao Yen, a young woman with a defor med hand, is set to mar ry a man whose only desire is for the ‘Grasshopper Shoe’, a precious porcelain bowl belonging to Hsiao Yen’s father. Hsiao Yen’s life course is altered when a cholera epidemic kills the groom and a wild stor m destroys the bride’s carriage and dowry. Sick and alone, the young woman is taken on board a ship, where French explorer-naturalist Lucien Battard, a devout Christian on a mission to disprove Darwin’s theory of evolution, nurses her back to health. The social, religious and cultural differences between Battard and Hsiao Yen are enormous, but they share a love of nature and art and a wild curiosity about the world. When the two become lovers Battard is tormented with guilt over his ‘sin’, but for Hsiao Yen sex is a natural progression for two people in love: ‘The coming together of man and wife … [is] a blessing, the wheel notched forward as it turns.’ This is an impressively researched novel, and, for the most part, the historical background and context are gracefully inserted into the story, as are many fascinating facts about nineteenth-century Chinese culture and science. Despite the foreignness of its setting and time, this is a timeless and universal story, told with authority and compassion. ★★★ RG Pandanus Books $29.95 Reviewed by Emily Maguire Watershed Fabienne Bayet-Charlton The inhabitants of the South Australian town of Sturtspond are suffering through the long drought, but for Eve and her husband Marconi the drought is just the harsh background to the real tragedy in their lives: the death of their only child, David. Watershed examines the cruelties and intimacies of small towns and the consequences of environmental destruction on the Australian landscape; however, the excessive attention given to these themes dissipates the tension of the book somewhat. The space given to supporting characters is also hard to justify given that they are largely stereo- types: the condescending hippie-chick from the city, the tough old broad who dispenses world-weary advice, the Aboriginal who interacts with whitefellas by telling ambiguous Dreamtime stories. Painfully real and immensely moving, however, are the pas- ages in which Eve remembers her son. ‘Remembers’ is perhaps he wrong word, because Eve drowning her sor rows in oth the swimming pool and cask wine – is immersed in grief. Every moment of her day, from buying food to watching anti-Iraq war demonstrations on TV, is filtered through the lens of missing David. Eve’s raw pain is the driv- ing force of this book, but the looseness of the narrative ensures that her struggle to continue living in a community which has moved on from her son’s death is not as compelling as it should be. ★★★ IAD Press $22.95 Reviewed by Emily Maguire Evil Diane Bell The blurb of Evil allures with promises of ‘sex, silence and sin’ but this is not a raunchy read as one may first assume. It is instead a shocking fictional exposé of what really goes on inside St Jude’s, a Jesuit liberal arts college in America. Professor Dee P Scrutari is an Australian anthropologist fresh out of Uganda and brimming with ideas to update the religious department at St Jude’s. Dee studies the religious ritu- als of women in indigenous cultures, but most of the ‘non-reproducing males’ who dominate St Jude’s are either not prepared to acknowledge the fact that women can have their own rituals or they are caught up in scandals with women and are scared Dee will expose them. While getting to know her col- leagues, Dee begins to suspect that all is not ethical here. She lear ns of women who have mysteriously left St Jude’s and another professor who was ‘accidentally’ killed. Her growing suspicions lead her to begin asking questions and writing notes on what she uncovers. These notes – which she is constantly scribbling – make up a huge part of the nar rative and begin to grate after a while. Evil is an intellectual read, con- taining references to many feminist and religious texts. But a novel about cor rupt priests and lesbian nuns is not for everyone! ★★★ Spinifex Press $24.95 Reviewed by Rachael Blair Cartoon taken from The Bad Guys are Winning by Cathy Wilcox, published by Lothian Books, $19.95. Reproduced with permission. OUR FAVOURITE GENERAL FICTION TITLES OF 2005 The following books were awarded ★★★★★ by our reviewers: ★ The Fahrenheit Twins by Michel Faber ★ One Big Damn Puzzler by John Harding ★ Ursula, Under by Ingrid Hill ★ Runaway by Alice Munro ★ Five Oranges by Graham Reilly ★ Gilead by Marilynne Robinson ★ Tourmaline by Joanna Scott ★ We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver ★ Dead Europe by Christos Tsiolkas ★ Scraps of Heaven by Arnold Zable